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02/27/2017 11:00 PMIt has been deteriorating for more than a decade, but 2017 might be the year of change for the former Academy School. After months of planning, the town has finally set a date of Tuesday, March 14, for the first public workshop on the future of Academy School.
The Board of Selectmen recently approved the firm Fitzgerald & Halliday, Inc. (FHI) to serve as the Academy School facilitator for the meetings. The current proposed scope of work for FHI includes an online survey, up to three stakeholder meetings, and at least two larger public meetings among other services for a total proposed facilitators expense of $14,976.
The survey is currently online along with a series of answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs) including the assessed value of the property, the future of the adjacent baseball fields if the whole property is developed, current cost estimates to bring the building back online, and the conditions of the deed of Daniel Hand.
First Selectman Tom Banisch said the FAQs are designed to address some concerns and to generate some new questions at the public workshop. He said the goal of the information is to honestly educate the public about Academy School.
“It is not a rosy presentation—it is a warts and all presentation,” he said. “Here is a beautiful building that has been let go for 14 years. What do we do now? Because we just can’t let it go anymore.”
The survey is designed to take the temperature of the town in regard to Academy, and while Banisch has not been secretive about his desire to see the building privately owned, he wants to gauge the opinion of the whole town.
“We have to determine as a town what direction we want to take with this,” he said.
Banisch said 12 developers have reached out to him expressing interest in the building to date. However, Banisch said he wants the potential developers to hear the opinions of town residents as well.
“We have heard from a lot of people who say, ‘Let’s put condos over there,’” he said. “OK, that is an option, but I don’t know if it is the best option. I am not saying condos couldn’t be part of it, but I think with a building that is as unique and as big as Academy School, I think we have an opportunity to do something really monumental for Madison.”
While a large portion of the public workshop is focused on discussing the future of the building, Banisch said the town is also working on a marketing component. He said a developer or interested party is going to want to know the financial ins and outs of the building.
“What we want to do is create a package so anybody who is looking at the property can say, ‘OK, here is what the opportunity is and here is what my exposure is going to be’ so they can see the risk and reward,” he said.
The Academy School public workshop is Tuesday, March 14 at 7 p.m. at the Walter C. Polson Middle School Cafeteria. To read the FAQs or take the survey, visit www.madisonct.org/771/Academy-School.
A Long History: Academy School
While much of the discussion has focused on the future of the aging school building, its long history has been a key player in many of the current discussions.
The school was built in 1921 and was later added onto in 1935. It was in use for decades before being closed in 2004. The building was then turned over to the town in 2011.
In 2012, the Ad-Hoc Academy Investigation Committee was established to determine the best use for the building going forward. At the time, several third parties came forward expressing interest, including the Shoreline Arts Alliance (SAA) and local developer William Plunkett, who expressed interest in creating 40 to 50 units of housing in the space. Committee Member David Kadamus previously said the committee determined the building would be best for town or community use.
“The committee had a nice mix of people that represented a lot of different interests in town and we did several town meetings that were extremely well attended,” Kadamus said. “In general the feedback was that they wanted that facility, because it is so close in proximity to the Green and the historical nature of Memorial Town Hall, there was a real feel that that whole area of Madison needed to be preserved for its historical nature.”
The suggestion was passed onto the BOS, which approved the suggestion. Former first selectman Fillmore McPherson previously said the BOS was unanimous in its opinion.
“We thought that having an arts center would be very good for the town, it would make good use of the iconic old building, and that it would be a draw for people to our downtown area,” McPherson said. “People would come for lessons and studios and all of the things that go along with the arts center.”
The town was in discussions with SAA for close to three years before the plan to turn the building into a cultural arts center began to deteriorate. SAA walked away from the project in July 2016, citing a lack of progress over recent months and a shift in business terms, leaving the town to come up with a new plan for the aging facility.
The town opened the building up in the fall of 2016 to sell the numerous school items left in the building. Since then, the town has debated the appropriate time and way to solicit public input on the building.